The Beginner's Guide to Candy Making

Simple and Sweet Recipes for Chocolates, Caramels, Lollypops, Gummies, and More

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Pub Date 19 Apr 2022 | Archive Date 17 May 2022

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Description

This super-simple guide to making candy features photo-illustrated step-by-step instructions and techniques for creating all kinds of yummy sweets.

Making your own homemade candy may sound complicated, but it’s easy and fun! Candy making in your home kitchen allows creative exploration that requires no experience and very little equipment, and the results can be used as inexpensive gifts or festive desserts for a range of occasions. The Beginner’s Guide to Candy Making, adapted from The Sweet Book of Candy Making, offers an easy approach, basic recipes that everyone will enjoy, and creative hacks that will make candy making easier than ever. Even the most inexperienced cooks and bakers can learn to make their favorite candies for their favorite people.

Inside, you’ll find:
 
  • Candy-making basics, including equipment, simple ingredients, techniques, and candy hacks that cover lessons on pulling taffy, rolling truffles, filling peanut butter cups, and much more
  • Amazing no-fuss recipes for hard candies, chewy caramels, tasty toffees, melt-in-your-mouth fudge, decadent truffles, chocolates, marshmallows, and nut candies to name a few
  • Hacks and quick fix tips for fixing candy batch’s gone awry 
  • Perfect classics from Penuche Fudge to Lollipops 
  • Novel flavor combinations to try, such as Pistachio Marzipan Squares, Passion Fruit Marshmallows, Mango-Macadamia Nut Caramels, Lemon Meringue Lollipops, and more

Ideas for gifting and decorating are included to make your candy gifts the talk of the neighborhood.
This super-simple guide to making candy features photo-illustrated step-by-step instructions and techniques for creating all kinds of yummy sweets.

Making your own homemade candy may sound...

Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9780760379639
PRICE $14.99 (USD)
PAGES 144

Available on NetGalley

NetGalley Shelf App (PDF)

Average rating from 45 members


Featured Reviews

As someone who loves to make treats and sweets whenever I can this book was a wonderful read!

Not only is it filled with beautiful and vivid photos, but it also has a break down of all kinds of techniques and general guides for any beginner. It covers anything you could really think to question and the instructions/guides are very clear and easy to understand.

This book has more than guides and information in it, it also has several really beginner friendly recipes and step by step photos to help you follow along with most of it.

All-in-all this is a perfect book for anyone interested in dabbling with candy making and would make for a great gift as well!

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I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a unique book!

This is a good book for people who enjoy making things and want to expand their experience to making candy. This book has recipes for things like fudge, gummies, and other candies. The book shares recipes along with some pictures. There are tips for general candy making, information on supplies, and trouble shooting tips for making various sweets. Some of the recipes are time consuming, but this book seems like a helpful guide to learn how to make giftable and unique sweets.

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This book is very aesthetically pleasing with the layout and the pictures chosen. It also has plenty of recipes that seem very doable with detailed explanations and equipment description. I'm excited to get started! I think I'll begin with the Butterscotch Buttons.

Thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

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The Beginner's Guide to Candy Making is a well written visual tutorial guide to making confections and candy by Elizabeth LaBau. Due out 12th April 2022 from Quarto on their Quarry Books imprint, it's 144 pages and will be available in paperback format.

This is a book full of beginner accessible recipes for attractive sweets. It's arranged logically, with an introduction which gives an overview over techniques and tools and supplies. The chapters which follow include the recipes, grouped thematically: sugar candies, fondant, caramels, toffee, fudge, truffles, chocolate candies, marshmallows, and fruit&nut candies.

Recipes include a description, ingredients in a bullet list (measurements are given in imperial/American and metric units), followed by step-by-step directions. The instructions are easy to understand and the photos are clear and in color. There are numerous tutorials included and none of the recipes should be beyond the skills of a keen amateur without any background training. Most ingredients will be easily found at any large grocery store. Some esoteric ingredients for some recipes may need an international grocery store or online retailer.

The final section of the book shows a variety of finishing and decorating techniques for extra professional results. The author has also included a resource and links list for sourcing ingredients, forms, and specialty supplies.

Four stars. Very good selection of appealing sweets with great looking results.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

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Where have you been all my life??
Lollipops and marshmallows and fudge and bubble sugar.
Once I’ve recoved from optical sugar overload, I anticipate to be spending A LOT of time in the kitchen…ahem… research facility to recreate ALL OF THOSE recipes. With chapters on chocolate tempering, taffy-pulling and sugarwork, this is quite an in-depth specialised treatise with heaps of drool-inducing images.
I particularly loved the troubleshooting parts of each chapter and the chapter on decorating.
Will definitely be on my Christmas list!

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This ‘how to’ candy books has all your favourites, from fudge to truffles, and marshmallows to toffee. The instructions are clear, simple and in easy to follow wording, and the step by step close up photographs guide you through each individual component of the candy you’re making. It talks you through all the necessary ingredients and essential equipment, so you’re prepped and ready to go from the off. It also has handy tips, and common troubleshooting guides for the makes. I love the section at the end that gives instructions on how to make the most beautiful and impressive sugar decorations for cake toppers. If you’re wanting to give candy making a go, I’d definitely recommend this book.

Thank you to Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry and Netgalley for an eARC of this book to read and review.

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Great book for people that love homemade everything! It teaches how to make sugar candies, fondants, caramel, toffee, fudge, truffles, chocolate candies, marshmallows, and fruit and nut candies. My favorite one is the Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups! Every recipe has a photo! Very nice! I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review

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I received this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I have a huge, insatiable sweet tooth. This book is perfect for me! The beginning had a lot of useful tricks and tips. The pictures looked delicious! I can't wait to try the mango macadamia nut caramel and really the entire chocolate section!

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Do you have a sweet tooth?
Elizabeth LeBau is a food writer, recipe developer and enthusiastic candy eater whose "unapologetic love of candy" (p.6) might be a reason for her book "The Beginner's Guide to Candy Making. Simple and Sweet Recipes for Chocolates, Caramels, Lollypops, Gummies, and More", published by Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry (New Shoe Press). She states: "The basic thrill of simply eating sugar has been replaced by the joy of working with sugar to invent my own candy creations, and I hope to share this same joy with you" (p. 6) and she considers making candy at home a magical process. I really appreciated that she is also honest about having failures which is very encouraging for her readers but her goal is to help the readers not to make the same mistakes. The book is divided into three parts: 1) Getting Started, 2) Candy Recipes, and 3) Decoration & Presentation. It is very informative about the various ingredients and equipment. I highly appreciate that the book provides the temperatures in the various recipes in °F and °C. There are also troubleshooting sections throughout the book which help those who learn to make candy and those who want to deepen their skills. The book is fro experienced candy makers who are looking for new inspiration as well as for novices who want to learn how to get started. Due to its great design the book makes a great present for readers who are interested in candy making.
The complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher through NetGalley free of charge. I was under no obligation to offer a positive review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
#TheBeginnersGuideToCandyMaking #Netgalley

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Comprehensive and clearly written, The Beginner's Guide to Candy making is wonderful for anyone with a sweet tooth and enough patience to make their own sweets. Measurements are given in volume and in weight, metric and imperial, with both Fahrenheit and Celsius temperatures given. There are step by step pictures and troubleshooting guides to start each type of candy. Equipment is pared down to a minimum and common mistakes are warned against, with solutions for rescuing batches offered. Truly an excellent book for beginners, and the flavor combinations are inspired and far from bland. Highly recommend!

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Looking through this book is what you imagine a candy shop of olden times might have been like with a wide array of yummy looking treats.

It's very visually appealing with appetizing photos, brightly colored charming page borders, items helpful in candy making, troubleshooting sections, general instruction, and recipes.

I found the troubleshooting sections to be a giant confidence booster at the concept of personally making some of the candy featured in the cookbook since they to seem to address all the things that could potentially go wrong (I’m of the forewarned is forearmed type mindset when it comes to attempting so completely new and foreign to me).

The majority of these recipes are not vegan but many of this majority could be easily veganized. Recommended.

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A delicious book in its entirety - the photos, recipes and utter shunning of artificial sweeteners and substandard ingredients all make this book deliciously decadent and utterly fabulous! It is all about the taste, quality and experience of delectable creations and with an 'everything in moderation' ethos, I absolutely agree that we should enjoy the tasty recipes shared in this book.

With truffles, candies, fondant, fudge and toffee to name just a few of the utter delights, I defy anyone not to find something they are motivate to create, and with clear instructions, even the novice baker can aspire to create them.

This is. a book I would encourage any candy lover to devour!

My thanks to Netgalley, author and publisher for the opportunity to review this book in exchange for an advance copy.

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This was a really interesting and fun book to read. I really enjoyed applying what I learned from this book and would highly recommend it to anyone!

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This is a great book if you're new to candy making or just want to find some new recipes. There are photos for just about every recipe and it goes into detail about how to do everything from temper chocolate to filling molds to determining the sugar stages without a candy thermometer.

Obviously, these recipes are full of sugar, artificial colors and ingredients that aren't great for you or your loved ones. I tend to do really easy candy recipes on the rare occasions I make homemade because honestly it feels like getting really good at rolling cigarettes for your family. ;) But this is an excellent guide for those times when you want to take the time to make real candy and the ingredients will be way better than what you're find in most stores.

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

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A big thank you to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group/Quarry/New Shoe Press for the ARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. I found this to be an interesting read. The steps are well written and it provides all the needed information. My problem is that there are a lot of specialty items, and ingredients. Things that I just don't have access to at the moment. I actually don't even have a stove, so for me this was just a looking book. Enjoyable and makes me wish I had a kitchen to try some of these. 4 stars

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To misuse an old cliché, "If you only own one candy making cookbook, make it this one!" I'm not kidding. This cookbook is more than just a collection of recipes, While it does have heaps of recipes, you'll also have a guide to candy making equipment, an overview of techniques, a collection of online resources, and a really fun section on finishing techniques and candy decorations that'll give your already sumptuous sweets some extra pizzazz.

Because homemade candy can be quite fussy and temperamental, troubleshooting guides are included to help you figure out what might have gone wrong so you can try again with a better chance of success.

The recipes run the gamut of traditional favorites through modern variations which use unexpected flavors and ingredients. There's something for everyone - and I can't seem to get over the fact that there's *three* recipes for lollipops! Will you choose to make Classic, Victorian-esque, or Quite Modern lollies? I want to make all three.

I've not made candy very often in my life, but that may change soon. It helps when someone has your back, and author Elizabeth LaBau makes sure her book won't let you down.

My thanks to Elizabeth LaBau, Quarto Publishing Group – Quarry, New Shoe Press, and NetGalley for allowing me to read a digital advance review copy of this book. This review is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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A great and inspirational guide to the intimidating world of candy making. It really does break it down into everything you need and need to know. Some exciting recipes and beautiful photos, make this a perfect gift for any creative bakers you know. Or, anyone with a sweet tooth

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My grandmother made homemade candies when I was younger and I never got the chance to learn the process from her while she was alive so, while I have some of the recipes, I have little confidence in my technique. I’ve managed to eek out some decent chocolate truffles and I have a 50% success rating on her toffee recipe but I mostly feel like a fish out of water when attempting candy. The Beginner’s Guide to Candy Making is the answer to all of my questions and anxieties. LaBau is concise, clear, and incredibly knowledgeable without overwhelming newbies with too much technical information. The pictures and step by step instructions are easy to follow and very manageable. One of her most helpful inclusions is the “troubleshooting” into to each section, explaining a common problem in candy making, why it happened, and how to fix it and/or avoid it in the future. The recipes themselves are a wonderful mix of familiar and familiar with a twist with flavor profiles sure to please everyone. After reading this cookbook I feel much more confident tackling more of my grandmother’s recipes and trying out several of LaBau’s as well!

Special thanks to NetGalley and Quarto Publishing Group-Quarry for an advance electronic copy in exchange for an honest review.

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I want to thank Netgalley and the author for gifting me the ebook. I have always wanted to try and make my own candy! This book has great pictures and is very informative. I cannot wait to try the recipes.

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This is a great guide to start to make fudge and other candies, my fudge turned out. The photos are show what you want to see and are colourful. some good tips on decorating.

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This book is full of information both to help beginning candy makers and to guide more experienced candy makers. Lollipops, chocolates, cake decorations and more are here. The front matter introduces everything needed: supplies (be prepared to spend some money), techniques, and terms (if you ever wondered what the "hard crack" stage is, get both a description and a photo!). Instructions and photos for each technique and recipe are thorough and helpful. There's even information to diagnose problems.

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Such a delightful book. As a sugartooth this book is pleasing. First I can learn basic information about material and specific technics to handle it. Sugar, candy, peanuts and fruits mixes... The author for sure have knowledge in this field and provide us with so many mouthwatering recipes and step by step to making it.

Thanks Netgalley for providing me with this book, I am learning something new today.

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A step by step guide to making delicious candies, either chocolates, toffees, fudges, and so many more. An addictive book, trying these recipes is a challenge, but the step by step information is easy to follow once you get the basic equipment and processes down. Recommended.

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Once upon a time I bought a candy thermometer because I got it in my head I was going to make candy. I was convinced I could make my kids something special. When my thermometer arrived I promptly washed it and then threw it in that drawer. You know that drawer the one with the turkey baster you use once a year. Well this thermometer is going to be my new best friend because after reading this book I’m not scared to try anymore.

Broken down into different types of candies each chapter starts with troubleshooting solutions. I cannot wait to work my way through this book. All the recipes are well written with easy to follow directions. Even how to make your own marshmallows!!! Oh my goodness can you even imagine the possibilities?!?

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Wow, this is an amazing book of candy making. Beautiful pictures and detail. Awesome recipes. My grandmother loved to make candy and had special knowledge that I was never really able to pick up on (such as how the outside temperatures affected certain candies). This book definitely made me want to start venturing into the art of making candy. A perfect book to have a paperback or hardcover version to keep in your kitchen. Thank you to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for allowing me to review.

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These beginner books are really quite lovely. Step by step, troubleshooting, and some real gorgeous picture flout the pages. The tips and tricks in the beginning really look inviting enough to try a do it yourself at home candy making.

What did I like? I would definitely recommend this book. Tons of different candy to make yourself and the pictures were great. Really enjoyed looking at how they make salt water taffy. I know we’ve all been to the little shops to watch them stretch it but it’s really nice to see what actually goes into it.

Would I recommend or buy! Yes, if your into making candy this would be a great introduction book. You get to control what actually goes into the candy and it’s eye opening to see how to make your own. A great gift, or a great purchase. Five stars,

I received a complimentary copy from the publisher to read and voluntarily left this review!

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This beautiful book will have you making sweet treats for all your friends and families. Everything you could need to know about how to create hard candies, chocolates, and caramels are included in this book. There are troubleshooting hints to help you get the perfect results. There are pictures that show you how to prepare nuts to be added to your chocolates. And all the great recipes for fudge. I can almost smell them. And the variety of truffles! I want to try the strawberry balsamic vinegar truffles. They sound wonderful. And I think I should be successful making them because of the clear step by step directions. If you need me I will be in the kitchen trying some lovely creations.

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This is a fantastic guide to making homemade candy! The instructions are easy to follow and the pictures are great. You can learn how to make tons of delicious treats that are perfect for gifts.

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The beginners guide to candy making is a very good introductory book. I have definitely learnt some new techniques

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